VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

At least kiters have the advantage of walking back on dry land with a manageable bundle of gear. I'm sure all the wading and towing a big sail and board was good for the cardio, but didn't provide much of a rest from the extreme aerobics of learning to waterstart and, once going, falling in about 3 times every crossing of the lake!

It WAS tongue in cheek but certainly brought out strong opinions.

I like the advice below. When circumstances have left you with no alternative but to do the Walk of Shame, Contemplation, Addiction, or Enlightenment, "Do it with dignity" !

From: http://www.windcraft.com/windsurflesson.html: "If you don't follow this advice, don't be surprised that you have ended up somewhere downwind and will have to walk your gear back to the beginning. This is perfectly acceptable! Windsurfers have been and continue to do this walk at every skill level, even the most advanced! Some of our best adventure stories involve the historic "walk of shame. " Do it with dignity. We all had to do it one time or another. Really. Just try to make sure the walk back doesn't include farm animals or heavy traffic."

The Walk of Shame is simply a rite of passage. It's more of a tongue in cheek term used by experienced sailors/kiters. I've never actually heard anyone seriously derided for doing The Walk.

So all you new/old sailors/kiters, walk The Walk of Shame with, um, pride!

I'm currently doing the Walk of Hate. My footstrap put the hurt on me again and now I'm missing classic Kook. Curses!

I was writing my response just as you posted. Sorry for the redundancy.

At least at nitinat you cant get too far downwind before you hit a beach. i once met a guy at the HR event site that had been blown down from the hatchery, he was looking to bum a "ride of shame" back over to Washington!

I picked someone up from the boat launch (at Nitinat) last year ... not mentioning any names ... can't get much farther downwind without getting blown up the river .... at least there was no toll ..... yet ....

I scrambled up the Wash. side @ Hood r., was picked up by friends & infected with poison Oak ~ 20 years ago..I guess that would be 'The RIDE of shame !'

Last post by yours truly!

Hmm, still not sure about all the walking, must come from having learned sailing off a dock w/ no option of landing anywhere else.
I do recall going for a "drift of fear" down the spring-raging Columbia from MaryHill Park toward and right under the main channel of Maryhill bridge in May after the wind had died.
Came pretty close to ditching the rig in fear of those barges and bouncing off the massive whirlpools of the bridge pillars nearly resulted in soiled wetsuit I still get shivers thinking about that one....

how 'bout walk of pride. Proud to have at least been blown downwind unlike all of life's spectators who can only sit on the beach and wonder what it would be like to be a windsurfer. Walk with the pride, no, the arrogance of knowing that 99% of the world dosen't have a clue. Like a black rapper, strut that gear up the beach, put a little rhythmn in your walk, add a few "oh yea's" and you'll be groovin' your way upwind.
Make it a walk of attitude.
I fly stunt kites and our walk of shame is when too many tip wraps make a relaunch impossible. I think we're calling it a walk of reflection. I'm calling it taking a little break.

Gee, JJJimm, I can see where you're coming from there, but spring in your step and that attitude takes extra effort. When you are up to your waist in water making like an overloaded Seaspan tug pushing your gear against the wind and tide with arms that are cramping from struggling back to the beach, the 'hop' in 'hip-hop' is more than most can handle! (Bobson probably did this when he was learning though!)

I think it should be called the bitch slap walk. I broke the UJ on my Hi-Fly once downwind of most where other's were sailing - sail and rig still in my hand i see the board surfing away downwind. I think about swimming for the board for an instant but its moving quick.

2 hours later i swim into the old RV lots which Grant was trying to push at the downwind end of the lake. You remember the old lots which always flooded in winter.

No harm done other then massive chafing in my legs from swimming for 2hours and a long 1hour plus walk back to camp from the rv lots. Many thanks to Dave B for getting on the truck to help me get my rig back.

About 3 months later some guy from the reserve returns my board. next story - looping the hifly at kook street.

Thanks LL i was hoping that tale would get told, i think it was glen not grant but jeez that was over 10 yrs ago now. could be the nitinat record long walk unless someones got stuck on the far side and had to hike around, that would be 15km by my map. fess up!

Yes, I did that walk. In my 1st year kiting, I broke 2 lines on the far side of nitinat. I dragged straight downwind holding onto the wings of my kite(before I had discovered you could drag across slightly downwind). I was horrified as I got to the never before vissited end of the lake and discovered that it was a maze of tree stumps. Luckily I saw a small boat launch and managed to guide the kite to it. I think this is where Glen has his property.I wrapped everything up and started walking. If I had have known how far it was(you hit the main road just before the last bridge before you turn into the village), I would have swum across the river. I ended up walking all the way to the campsite(along the road). That was 4 summers ago. No cars passed me during my trek, so that blew the whole afternoon. After that, I really concentrated on self-rescue techniques.

Wow! These are great stories. It's interesting how trying to get back to somewhere near the campsite before complete exhaustion sets in, turns to survival and risk management as to where you are going to end up beaching and walking from and whether your $2500 worth of equipment will survive the trauma.